Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel

2026

Gamification of phonological rara: (re)production of Zulu clicks on Duolingo. Paper presented at Vielfaltslinguistik 8, Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel, 5.6.2026. (with Stephanie Berger, Marlene Böttcher & Benno Trabandt).

Ju|'hoan in the schoolhof: on the (re)shaping of language in a Namibian boarding school. Presented at the Durham Cultural Evolution Research Centre, Durham University. 13.03.2026.

Introducing Central Tshwa: the missing link in the G||ana-Tshwa continuum (Kalahari Khoe)? Paper presented at the Afrikalinguistisches Kolloquium, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. 12.02.2026.

2025

Collaborators with the hearts of men and the hearts of women: diversity begets diversity. Presented within the panel: Unheard Voices: Beiträge, Anregungen und Überlegungen zur Einbeziehung marginalisierter Perspektiven in der afrikanistischen Forschung. 26. Afrikanist*innentag. Universität Wien, 17.-20.6.2025.

Serious about verb serialisation: the Juǀ’hoan perspective. Linguistisches Kolloquium, Institut für Skandinavistik, Frisistik, und allgemeine Sprachwissenschaft. Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel. 20.5.2025.

Constructional promiscuity of auxiliaries: language-related and methodological challenges of verbal complex predicates in Ju. 47. Jahrestagung der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Sprachwissenschaft: Vielfalt und Wandel. Universität Mainz. 7.3.2025. (with Tom Güldemann)

2024

Interpreting language variation in the Kalahari Basin Area: a Sprachbund on the verge of extinction. Presented at Late Night Science, Einblicke in der Asien-Afrika-Forschung der CAU, ZAAS, Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel. 30.10.2024.

What gender are *they*? The linguistic ecosystems behind the elaboration of Ju|’hoan gender systems. Presented at Linguistisches Kolloquium, Institut für Sprachwissenschaft, Universität Graz. 16.10.2024.

2023

The tongue pop and the construction of a global queer pesona. Presented at Language, Gender, Sexuality: theoretical and methodological perspectives. University of Helsinki. 12-13 October.

Something new, something old, and something borrowed: Ju|'hoan grammatical gender systems. Presented at Vielfaltslinguistik 5, 19.-20.05, Institut für Finnougristik/Uralistik, Universität Hamburg.

2022

Typological features of Consonants in Khoisan languages of the Kalahari Basin Area. Francqui International Professorship Symposium (The Diversity and Documentation of Speech Sounds in Languages of the World). University of Antwerp, 9 December. Invited (sole presenter, made on behalf of the entire research team).

Complex predicates in Kalahari Basin Area languages. First conference of the DFG-ANF ComPLETE Project (DFG-ANF), Johannes-Gutenberg-Universität zu Mainz. 14-16 November. (with Tom Güldemann

The pseudo-consecutive construction in Juǀ’hoan and ǃXun. International symposium on Khoisan languages and linguistics (Riezlern). 18-20 July.

Stronger than ever: language contact, language change, and the expression of kinship in Omaheke Juǀ’hoan. 13th Conference on Hunter and Gatherer Societies, University College Dublin, 29 June-1 July. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.6786730

2021

When verbs ‘come (and) stand’ together: pseudo-consecutive construction in ǃXun and Ju|’hoan. Afrikalinguistisches Kolloquium, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. 16 November.

Respect*in*g African languages: towards a typology of pronominal honorification in African languages. 24th Afrikanist*innentag, Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main. 1-3 July.

The queerest click: lessons in linguistic marginalia from drag queens. 27th Lavender languages and linguistics conference, California Institute for Integral Studies, San Francisco. 21- 23 May. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.5119340

2020

Puzzling Palatalisation: tracking areal features and contact across ǂ'Amkoe, Kalahari Khoe, and Bantu. Afrikalinguistisches Kolloquium, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. 9 June. Invited. (with Linda Gerlach)

2019

Politeness knows no boundaries: the diffusion of pronominal honorification in the Kalahari Basin. 12th International Conference on (Im)politeness, Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge. 17-19 June.

2018

An areal and typological appraisal of gender in Ju (Kx’a). Workshop ‘Gender across Niger-Congo’, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. 29-30 November.

(with Tom Güldemann) ReKOMmenting on ǂKx’aoǁ’ae: A discourse-based approach to theticity-marking particles in the Kalahari Basin. Information structure in spoken language corpora 3 (ISSLaC3): discourse and information structure. Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster. 7-8 December.

Language documentation in Africa: documenting endangered languages of the Kalahari. Keynote. ELDP Semana da documentação linguística, FFLCH, University of São Paulo. 8 October. Keynote speaker.

Towards a reclassification of Kalahari Khoe. University of Botswana. 7 August. Invited.

Documenting linguistic diversity in eastern Botswana: the case of Tshwa (Kalahari Khoe). Workshop “Keeping Up Khoisan” at the 20th International Congress of Linguists, Cape Town, South Africa. 2-6 July.

Person-gender-number marking in Tshwa (Khoe-Kwadi). 23rd Afrikanistentag, Universität Hamburg. 25-26 May.

2017

Language contact and language change in the Kalahari: evidence from a study of nominal gender in Ju (Kx’a). Institute for Scandinavian, Frisian, and general linguistics, Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel. 19 December.

Topic in Southeastern Ju varieties. Riezlern6 (6th International symposium for Khoisan languages and linguistics). Cederberg, South Africa. 25-27 March.

2016

New ideas from old sources: making sense of Ju language documentation and language dynamics of the early 20th century. Afrikalinguistisches Kolloquium, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. 15 November.

Some notes on phonological variation in SE Ju varieties. 1st meeting of the Khoisan Phonological Typology Project, Tokyo Uni. for Foreign Language Studies, 17-23 October

A holistic approach to noun classification in Juǀ’hoan. 22. Afrikanistentag, Humboldt- Universität zu Berlin. 17-18 July.

Semantics and pragmatics of possession in SE Ju. Afrikalinguistisches Kolloquium, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. 31 May.

2015

Sharing knowledge and discovering resources: the Juǀ'hoan archives at ELAR. “Multimedia Resources for Hunter-Gatherer Research“. 11th Conference on hunting and gathering societies, University of Vienna. 7-11 September,

Noun categorisation in Ju|’hoan: an unexpected window into language and cultural change in the Kalahari. Workshop “Hunter-Gatherer Languages in Contact”. 11th Conference on hunting and gathering societies, University of Vienna. 7-11 September,

Noun (re)classification in Juǀ’hoan. Workshop “Current Trends in Khoisan Linguistics”, 8th World Congress of African Linguistics, Kyoto, Japan. 20-24 August.

How it all became so kòm-plicated: a comparison of the functional and structural profile of kòm in Juǀ’hoan and ǂKx’aoǁ’ae. Workshop on Information Structure in Endangered Languages, Dept. of Linguistics, SOAS, University of London. 8-9 May.

2014

(with Tom Güldemann) KoMmenting on ǂKx’aoǁ’ae. 5th International Symposium on Khoisan Languages and Linguistics, Riezlern. 14-16 June.

2013

Devoicing in click clusters in ǂKx’ao-ǁ’ae: a synchronic & historical analysis. Phonetics and Phonology of sub-Saharan Languages (in memory of Professor Anthony Traill), University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, Südafrika. 7-10 June.

2013 The house the ǂKx’aoǁ’ae built: an approach to documenting language and sharing knowledge. 3rd International Conference on Language Documentation and Conservation (ICLDC), University of Hawai’i at Manoa. 28 February-3 March.